Lenovo Tabs Dell Exec as CEO

Looking to draw from the well that helped make Dell successful, computer maker Lenovo Group Limited has appointed William J. Amelio President and CEO.

Amelio, most recently senior vice president of Dell and president of Dell in Asia-Pacific and Japan, will immediately succeed Stephen M. Ward, Jr., who will assist in the transition and serve as a consultant to Lenovo.

Amelio once served as general manager of worldwide operations for IBM's personal computing division, which Lenovo acquired earlier this year.

Lenovo's Chairman Yang Yuanqing said the board agreed the time is right for a change now that Lenovo has integrated the IBM PC division. The next step is "accelerating our planning for our next phase of growth," he said.

"Bill Amelio's combined experience... gives him the perfect profile to lead Lenovo from the important stability we have achieved in the first phase of our integration, to the profitable growth and efficiency improvement to which we are committed in our next phase," Yuanqing said in a statement.

Amelio sports a strong track record for selling computers.

During his four years at Dell, his sales more than doubled in the region and service levels improved significantly, according to third-party customer satisfaction metrics.

From 1997 to 2000, Amelio was with Honeywell and its predecessor, Allied Signal, where he was president and CEO of Honeywell's transportation and power-systems divisions, and head of the turbocharging systems business at Allied Signal.

Under Amelio, the turbocharging systems business doubled in revenues to more than $1 billion.

Before Honeywell and Allied Signal, Amelio spent 19 years at IBM in a range of senior management positions.

Meanwhile, Lenovo has promised the public a smooth transition since the deal closed in May.

The company, whose biggest competitors include Dell and HP, shipped record volume and had nearly even market share compared with Lenovo's and IBM's combined pre-acquisition shares.

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